was crucial, in that, as announced on "RTNC 3 Institutions," the
state-owned TV channel devoted to broadcasting live parliamentary
debates, its agenda included a communication to MPs of a ruling by the
Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ, in its French acronym), still acting as
the Constitutional Court. (The Constitutional Court is expected to be
set up during this legislature.)
Kinshasa media speculated that the CSJ announcement had to be about 2
pending matters: 1) The ruling of the high court on the reformulated
National Assembly's Article 22 of its rules and regulations (correct);
and 2) The CSJ final ruling on the more than 500 legislative election
disputes on its docket (wrong).
By the way, it's unclear as to when the ruling on the latter point
will be formally announced; or whether the CSJ would consider the
string of rulings it has already issued in a piecemeal way as formally
definitive. It was reported on Wedneday that the CSJ had announced
this Tuesday that it has finished examining and ruling on all pending
electoral litigations. In the event, the agenda of today's plenary
session didn't include this topic.
Though announced for 2 p.m. Kinshasa time (GMT + 1), Acting Speaker,
MP Timothée Kombo Nkisi, only opened the session at 2:57 p.m.
Speaker Kombo first dealt with the issue of the quorum. He said that
the National Assembly had a quorum as there were 351 MPs present, 5
MPs excused from attendance, 117 truants, and 27 seats still to be
filled.
(The National Assembly has therefore only 473 MPs, short of the 500 of
the full lower house: there were a dozen compilation centers
invalidated by the electoral commission for various reasons; and it's
unclear what CENI would do about this gap. Additionally, there are at
least 3 UDPS elected MPs who will never enter the hemicycle of the
National Assembly: Tshisekedi's son, sister, and next-door neighbor
who, according to the grapevine, is afraid of being assaulted by UDPS
supporters if he were to decide to sit in Parliament. Tshisekedi
recently disowned the four dozen UDPS MPs who have chosen to sit in
parliament, calling them mercenarie.)
Then Speaker Kombo announced the session's 3-point agenda: 1) Adoption
of the agenda of the session; 2) Examination of the minutes of the
plenary session of March 29 (at which Article 22 of the National
Assembly's rules and regulations was reformulated); and 3)
Communications of the Provisional Bureau of the National Assembly that
had 2 constituents: a) Announcement of the CSJ ruling on the
reformulated Article 22; and b) The Provisional Bureau's Calendar for
the election and installation of the permanent bureau.
The third point in the agenda was the one for which the
parliamentarians were bracing themselves.
In its first constituent, it was announced that the CSJ finally deemed
"conform to the Constitution" Article 22 of the National Assembly's
rules and regulations in its ruling of April 2. The reformulated
Article 22 states that the bureau has to reproduce within it the
configuration of the National Assembly.
The second constituent of the third point of the agenda was the
Provisional Bureau's calendar of the submission of candidacies to
various posts of the Permanent Bureau, the election campaign within
Parliament for those positions, the date of the election and the
installation of the aforementioned Bureau.
Some MPs jeered Speaker Kombo when he said that the calendar being an
"administrative decision," the matter wasn't debatable.
Speaker Kombo also reminded MPs of the consensus they'd previously
reached on power-sharing at the National Assembly.
He then proceeded to spell out that consensus, which was on the
positions slated respectively for the majority and the opposition in
the permanent Bureau:
1) 5 Majority posts: Speaker (President), First Vice-President,
Rapporteur, Questor, and Deputy Questor;
2) 2 Opposition posts: Second Vice-President (when Speaker Kombo read
out this position, the whole chamber erupted in applause, a way of
telling him he's the man for that job); and Deputy Rapporteur.
The calendar of election for these positions is as follows:
a) April 6: submission of candidacies;
b) April 7: billposting of candidates by the provisional Bureau;
c) April 8-9: electoral campaign;
d) April 10: election; and
e) April 10: installation of the permanent Bureau.
Two MPs, including MLC stalwart MP Jean-Lucien Busa, wanted the
Speaker to first publish the membership (to the majority or to the
opposition) of MPs before proceeding to the election of the permanent
Bureau--lest, I suspect, some pro-Kabila MPs run for positions
reserved for the opposition. Speaker Kombo responded that some members
have still to fill and sign those membership forms and asked them to
do so without further ado.
The session ended at 3:42 p.m.
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